The Untamed / Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS) fandom starter kit

Useful links, where to watch, some meta commentary, and other things that will hopefully get you started in this fandom.

written by Caroline aka avawtsn in 2021, last reviewed and ported into website format 24.12.08

table of contents
  1. getting started: recommended reading and references
  2. canon and adaptations
    1. the Untamed / CQL / the "web series"
    2. the Untamed Special Edition ← you are here
    3. the Untamed movies / Fatal Journey and the Living Dead
    4. Founder of Diabolism / MDZS animated series / donghua / anime
    5. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / MDZS comic / manhua / manga
    6. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, the original MDZS novel
    7. MDZS audio drama
  3. selected fic recs
  4. cast on social media

The Untamed Special Edition

availability

This is a 20 episode edition of the main 50 episode web series. How’s it special? It’s less plotty, more shippy (editor put in more reaction shots, more eye contact), and is totally chronological. So there is no flashback and frame narrative. It's hard to comment on how much gayer it is when it’s mostly a re-edit and very few additional scenes that weren’t in the main 50 episodes.

This cut is mostly for, imo, people looking to relive and speed run the show without the plot. As you might imagine, when you cut out 30 episodes out of an original 50 episode run, there is more cut than kept. So people will just start limping randomly because you didn’t see an earlier fight, or scenes will cut awkwardly from day to night to day because you needed to hear a particular line in between, that kind of thing. Just be warned, don't start with this.

Here’s a side by side sample of some changes they made that are just with edits. Here’s another. And one more.

Gay rating
Well, technically it's got to be higher than a 6 if that's the baseline I gave the main 50 episodes of CQL, but is it as much as a 7? I find this a hard one to call though, and fair warning: I’ve not finished it myself. I've just been rewatching the main show since first watching it in 2020.

movies >>

<< web series